Africa tells Facebook to 'unfriend' Coal

People from countries like Uganda, Senegal, Cameroon, Zimbabwe and South Africa got involved to create this message to Facebook: 'unfriend' coal!

One of the big online campaigns we've been running is to get Facebook off coal and onto renewable energy. As one of the biggest players in the online space, Facebook is uniquely positioned to determine where its electricity comes from -- and so far its been from dity, climate-changing coal.

People in US and Europe have been doing a lot for this campaign, but I felt it was really important for Africans to get involved, too.

It's no secret that the internet has a huge carbon footprint, and although Africa is perhaps the least connected user, its here the carbon footprint will impact most severly in terms of climate change. And talking to people here, and judging by your involvement on facebook and on the website, it was pretty easy to see that Africans want facebook off coal, too.

So we started a little online/offline activity where people from around the continent could add their voice to the call for a greener facebook. Africans from countries like Uganda, Cameroon, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe all wanted to get stuck in -- and they did. I emailed them each a letter of the alphabet which they printed out and used in a photo of themselves. The idea was that each letter was one piece of a bigger message to facebook.

The feedback I got was incredible, and what strikes me most about the collage is the effort and creativity that went into each photo. I think it shows that we all really love facebook and what it can do. We just wish it wasn't so dirty.

Personally I'd like to thank everyone who got involved in this project. The result is a truely African message that comes from accross the entire continent. Thanks for your time and the thought that went into your pics, I hope you enjoy the final product.

Our push to get facebook onto renewable energy is not over. Last week the campaign was given a massive boost when together we set a new world record: over 80,000 comments were made on a single post in 24 hours! We are definitly gathering momentum and with your help we can win this! So keep checking back on the site for more activities in the future, and, of course, keep an eye on our facebook page.